MacDonald Training Center needs your help to continue to further its very important mission during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.

When you Donate to MacDonald Training Center, your gift helps empower people with disabilities to lead the lives they choose.

Amazon

One of the easiest ways to show your support is to designate MacDonald Training Center as the recipient of a donation from Amazon Smile each time you make an online purchase.

Laptops for Learning

When on-site programs were suspended mid-March due to the stay-at-home order, MTC quickly launched virtual learning programs using online platforms such as Google Classroom. The laptop loan program will enable students to maintain hard-won progress toward job training, certification, placement. Online classes will remain available for students whose learning styles and/or health issues make virtual learning a desirable option.

Funding is needed to purchase 100 laptops at an estimated cost of $350 per laptop for loan to students in MTC’s job training, certification, and placement program. The requirements to complete each course range from 40-120 hours.  The  laptops would be loaned to  students over two years, at which time the laptops would be returned to MTC to be refurbished and resold through MTC’s  eQuality electronics recycling program.

Change a future. Donate to the Technology Scholarship/Laptops for Learning Fund at MTC! 

Omaha Steaks

We’re happy to announce that we’ve just started a fundraising campaign through the Steaks for Good program from Omaha Steaks! Shop  online, or in stores and mention MTC when you order steaks, burgers, chicken and more, and 10% of every order you make will go towards our fundraising goal!

Donations can be made in a variety of ways:

You can select to give a gift once a year or you may make convenient monthly contributions by check, credit card or through our secure on line donation page on our website.

  • Directly sponsor services for individuals who cannot pay for vital services themselves, through a donation to the Robert Chase Memorial Fund. This fund is increasingly important in light of continued cut backs in funding for people with disabilities.

  • Sponsor a specialty service—fully or partially—such as the Computer Lab, Music Studio, Fitness Center, MTC Fine Arts Studio, or Job Club.

  • Donate to the MTC Foundation through an endowment, planned gift or bequest. The MTC Foundation provides resources to support the ongoing mission of MacDonald Training Center.

  • Donate in-kind gifts like property, equipment, training materials, art supplies, etc.

  • Sponsor or underwrite our special events, such as The Table in the Park or Shattering Barriers.

  • Hold peer-to-peer fundraisers on behalf of MTC ONLINE, with your friends, connecting with your personal networks.

  • When possible, hold an event in the MTC Fine Arts Gallery for your social or professional network.

Robert Chase Memorial Fund
A Legacy of Giving

Hundreds of people with disabilities in our community are not receiving the services they need or the support required so that they may live up to their potential. You can help MTC to be there for them.

The Robert Chase Memorial Fund provides scholarship assistance for people with disabilities who need and would benefit from the services MTC offers, but who are either on the waiting list for funding or who have had significant reductions in their funding through the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD).

Your gift to the Robert Chase Memorial Fund allows MTC to provide services that can make a significant difference in the quality of a life. The Fund enables an individual to come to MTC one additional day each week and not languish at home or to receive additional services in their home to allow them to age in place with dignity, rather than being sent to a nursing home. Through this fund we can also provide more job skills training to an individual seeking a better life through competitive employment.

The Robert Chase Memorial Fund was established in May 1995, to commemorate the life of a philanthropic man who came to MTC initially as a teenage volunteer. Impressions made at MTC stayed with Robert throughout his life, inspiring him to a lifetime of service to people with developmental disabilities, until his untimely death in May of 1994.
old Florida landscape oil paintings

Captain Ray Chase, Robert’s father, was a local Tampa artist and retired mariner who specialized in maritime and old Florida landscape oil paintings. All proceeds from the sale of his paintings go directly into the Robert Chase Memorial Fund. A sample of his work is seen below. Additional artworks are available at our Cypress St. location.

“We are delighted that our son can be remembered in this way. He taught us by example, that to give of yourself unselfishly is a wonderful experience.”
-Captain Ray Chase